•    Water levels in the Odessa Aquifers have been in decline since the 1960s.  The causes for this groundwater depletion include overpumping by irrigators, combined with the use of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of illegally constructed wells that allow groundwater to cascade from upper aquifers to lower aquifers.  

 

•    Water supply problems in the Odessa Subarea are driving water policy and water development activities in Washington state.  The situation in Odessa is critical to understanding the new dam building programs being promoted by the State of Washington and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

 

•    In September 2006, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a preliminary study of the Odessa Subarea.  The study calls for diverting more water from the Columbia River, and expansion and construction of expensive canals and laterals.  The study assumes that water must be supplied to Odessa, but fails to discuss the tremendous environmental and financial (taxpayer) costs associated with the options for water supply.

 

•    In December 2005, the State of Washington issued a preliminary study of 21 potential new dam and reservoir sites adjacent to the Columbia River.  In September 2006, the state narrowed the list to four sites.  It is Washington’s goal to build dams to provide water to Odessa-area irrigators, along with other irrigators in the Columbia basin.  The state has not compared the costs and benefits of new dams, but has nonetheless committed more than $200 million to the program.

 

•    Non-sustainable water use is an unfortunate hallmark of irrigated farming on the Columbia Plateau.  With average rainfall of 10 inches per year, farming is only possible by diverting water out of the Columbia River, with significant adverse impacts on endangered salmon species.  Irrigated agriculture also impacts streams, wetlands and shrub steppe ecosystems within the Columbia Plateau.  

 

•    The delivery of irrigation water to Columbia Plateau farms is enormously expensive and represents one of the largest water subsidies in the United States.  Proposals to extend water service to Odessa farms will add to the subsidy and must be carefully balanced against the benefits.  To date, no economic analysis of costs and benefits has occurred.

 

•    Dryland cropping is a successful farming method for hundreds of thousands of acres in the Columbia basin.  Dryland cropping has developed as a response to the water supply limitations in the region.  Although dryland farming contributes to Washington’s agricultural economy, the state has failed to analyze the viability of dry land farming as a solution for the Odessa water supply shortage.

 

•    The Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are spending millions of dollars to study new dams and reservoirs in the Columbia basin, the most heavily dammed watershed in the planet.  Even a single dam would cost more than a billion dollars.  But these government agencies have yet to analyze whether more environmentally and economically beneficial approaches to promoting agriculture in the Columbia basin are available.